doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What is rationale behind skinny splinter forearms?

I disagree with this statement. It is NO easier to kill a limit of doves, ducks or quail with a three shot gun than it is with a two shot gun. Our limits are so small as to make these variables (screw in chokes, three shots and reduced recoil) meaningless in that context. Market hunters went to the higher capacity pumps and semi-autos because they had no limits and needed to kill as many as fast as they could. Anybody bothered by the recoil generated to kill one limit needs to cowboy up, or give it up.

I say chaps, not one of you as pointed out that the rationale behind a splinter forend is to reduce the weight forward of the hingepin.We 19th century Brits were obsessed with the weight of our guns. I was talking to Bill Greener the other day and he was saying that those London chappies couldn't build a decent gun. He said he'd heard Bob Churchill was considering cutting some barrels down to 25 inches. Blithering fool if you ask me ! Wot!
Chin chin, toodle pip.

This is a question that surfaces on this board every so often. I remember the first time I gave my opinion on splinter foreends several years ago. I believe I said something like this...... They are popular in Britain and probably work and look good on their guns. That's the place where they raise their little pinky high in the air when they sip their tea and wear blouses for shirts. But this is America. We like gorgeous wood with lots of checkering and as much wood as we can get on a gun. Who wants to burn the crap out of your hands after shooting several rounds of trap and have to be forced to wear a glove? Or better yet, did you ever see the guy who buys a skimpy little splinter forearm, and then buys one of those clunky leather covers that goes around it? What's with that? And is there anything more aggravating, than oiling up your gun and not being able to handle it to get it into your gun safe without taking the chance of it slipping out of your hand or having to grab the barrels that you just oiled because there is nothing else to grab ahold of? This is America. If you want a whippy handling and sissy looking gun that looks like it was made for a woman, then get one with a splinter foreend. But, if you want people to know that you are a man and that you shoot a man's gun and that you don't squat when you pee, get one with a beavertail forearm.......Hmmmmm. After handling and shooting so many of both of them over the years, experience has taught me I was right back then and I still feel the same way.

Salopian, LOL, best, Mike (loves splinter fore ends but admits to using a handguard if shooting hia AYA 20 at trap with ambient temp 35 deg C pr about 100 deg F !)

Us Brits got round the very simple problem of rapid firing by using a pair or even a triple of matched guns. The rate of fire that can be sustained by a gun with a good loader has to be seen to be believed.

We do over here have a good number of big driven shoots where the bag is 300 or 400 birds a day between a team of 8 to ten guns. The emphasis thugh is on quality of birds rather than quantity - a really good shot is probably hitting 1 in 2 1/2 or 1 in 3.

I once stood next to a chap who was shooting a pair of purdies on such a shoot - on one drive he had ten right and lefts in a row - and the birds were all fast phaesants 30 to 40 yds up.

Over and unders (especially in 20 bore)are becoming the standard choice now on game shoots. Most people find them easier to use than a a traditional side by side. I use a 50 year old double tiggered AYA Coral - which I am told were actually re badged Merkels, as Merkel were at that point behind the iron curtain.

Where side by sides are still popular is walked up shooting where weight is an issue - I now use a 410 by W J Jeffery - a very old gun but it only weighs 4 1/2 lbs - and quite happily shoot phaesants with it out to 30 yds - its tight pattern kills or misses completely. Also here in scoltand at most shoots will have a good collection of old sides by sides - Dicksons etc - mostly handed down through the family - a friends father still uses his grandfathers pair of Holland and Hollands - they must have fired hundreds of thousands of cartridges - the checkering is completely worn away, indeed the wood under the checkering is worn away, barrels are not blue but silver where the fore hand grips the barrels. But apart from the occasional service they have been used several times a month since they came out of Holland & Holland over 100 years ago.

"Over and unders (especially in 20 bore)are becoming the standard choice now on game shoots."

My choice now, mostly because of age,for hunting. I don't feel handicapped in the field or the blind.

For geese last January: TM three-inch, 1 1/8 ounce No. 3s.

Saying that 28 bores are also becoming quite the thing to have.

28s are what all my serious woodcock and grouse hunter friends are using with dogs now. No one carries a 12, walking for miles.

Jimmy W you are a heathen old chap! Shooting trap! My goodness you'll have me shooting skeet next, dreadful sport.
No I'll stick to my grouse moor with my trio of Woodwards ( far more chic than those common Purdeys old chap, Wot) I may venture down to Badmington, Rye House or Hurlingham for a spot of pigeon shooting, 'bout time someone smacked that Bogardus chappies bottom, damned foreigners, they will be taking the Empire back before we know it. Orf now for a chukka of Polo, Wot.

Have been carrying various SxS's now for 55 years, most all with "Skinny" forends, though have had a few of those abominations which looked like they were abandoned & a tree grew up around them , so they cut it down & called it a "Beavertail".

I can assure you my 10lb 10ga Lefever with its skinny forend fits absolutely "NONE" of that criteria.
In all of those 55 years of carrying those slim forends I never felt "Girlish" Nor like a "Sissy" & a forend in & of itself makes a gun neither "Whippy" or otherwise.
Jimmy, those statements are nothing but Pure Unadulerated "Ignorance".
Forends are purely a matter of personal choice, many of us simply do not prefer a pile of wood out there that turns an otherwise beautiful gun into something that looks like a Preagnant Sow.
As to speed of firing the real heyday of the pumps & autos was when they could legally be used with 5-6 shells. A double can be reloaded far quicker than either, their advantage comes when a series of shots can be fired quickly without the need to reload. Few of us are faced with that situation today.You can fire three shots quicker with tham, but Four or more faster with a double if you have pre-planed so you don't have to fumble for shells.